“Yes, you can. Anyway, there’s plenty of time.”
Lacey stepped closer and placed strong hands on Tessa’s shoulders, looking her right in the eyes.
“How about this? I don’twantto,” Lacey said. “I want to do this with you! You’re my mentor, my boss, my new auntie, my second mom—and if you tell my first one, she probably would agree.”
Tessa tried to laugh, but her throat and heart betrayed her and it came out like a sob. Lacey had no idea what she was saying or how it touched her. Folded her. Darn near broke her in two.
“I’m not kidding,” Lacey powered on. “You are the first person who helped me see my real future. Showed me a business and a path that feels right and real. You did that, in one month. Imagine where we’ll be in a year. Unstoppable! You did that!”
Tessa just sighed, searching the young, dear face in front of her—the baby blue eyes, the sweet complexion, the wide and easy smile of a twenty-four-year-old.
“Please don’t leave,” Lacey begged. “I need you.”
Tessa sank onto the edge of the bed, letting out a noisy sigh.
“That’s funny,” she whispered, looking up at Lacey. “Because apparently I need you, too.”
Lacey smiled, sitting next to her. “Then stay.”
“Tonight,” she finally said. “But I need to think about this, Lacey. I need to figure out what’s best.”
Lacey exhaled, relief washing over her face. “Okay. That’s all I ask. Just think about it.”
Lacey reached over and hugged her tightly. Tessa closed her eyes, letting the embrace ground her.
She was truly like a daughter…like a child she’d never had.
Tessa closed her eyes and squeezed Lacey a little tighter.
* * *
The next morning,Tessa sat at the dining table, a steaming cup of coffee next to her open laptop. The house was quiet, the first light of dawn glimmering on the Gulf, the sky pink toward the east.
She tore her gaze from the beautiful view to one that was ugly, strained, and wiggling.
Yes, today was a wiggly day on the computer, which might have been a function of the light. She highlighted the text and changed the font to Arial, which was always easier.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard as she started writing a step-by-step guide for planning the Bat Mitzvah in case she decided to leave. But every time she tried to focus, her mind drifted back to the night before.
From the weight of Crista’s accusations to the balm of Lacey’s proclamations to her own dark night of bad dreams, Tessa had yet to make a decision about what to do.
She squinted and waited for the voices in her head and the visual noise on the screen to quiet so she could read. But the screen wasn’t cooperating, so she picked up her pen and decided to go the old-fashioned way. She wrote down the words “understand mother’s vision for Naomi’s Bat Mitzvah” in large but neat writing.
Before she started point one, she heard footsteps upstairs. Was Eli up, or Vivien? Or…
Oh, boy. Here we go.
Crista came down slowly, wearing white pajamas with long pants and sleeves—wildly wintery and fancier than the sleep pants and T-shirts the other residents of the Summer House usually favored. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. Did she sleep like that? It looked uncomfortable. As she reached the landing, her sharp dark gaze landed on Tessa, and she froze.
The two of them just looked at each other, silence stretching out a few too many heartbeats.
“Don’t shoot till you see the whites of my eyes,” Tessa said, squinting at her. “And after last night? You might just see red around mine.”
Crista didn’t smile, but Tessa could have sworn her tight jaw loosened a bit.
“I’m unarmed,” Crista said dryly. “Unless there’s no coffee; then there might be a problem.”
Ah, so an actual human resided under all that precision. Tessa pointed to the kitchen. “Pot’s made. Knock yourself out.”
